[woodcote]

   

We dodged the heatwave, but our July Mod & Tuners night did clash with England's first knock-out round match of the World Cup. However, with one of Simon's best ever track designs in use, the sensible choice was to head for the Barn...

   

Over to Gareth for the race report...

[Gareth]

Race Report

Round 3 of Mod coincided with a ball kicking competition in some remote part of the world which inexplicably a few of our drivers decided would be more fun to watch than race.  So it was a select group of 17 on the grid for this round. 12 Mods and 5 Tuners.  

We also saw the debut of some of the brilliant bodies bought from Jeff Louie in the States.  It’s been a real privilege chatting to Jeff over the last few months and getting to know him.  He has now kindly made international shipping available for us so if you’d like to buy a body ready to put on your car, head over to biglou1 on ebay.  

   

   

The track was one we have run a few times in the past and is always enormously fun.  The switchback under the bridge catches the eye out as you expect your car to be blasting towards the top end of the track when it is actually barrelling into the treacherous infield section. As usual the lanes offered varying challenges with yellow needing caution in the infield and white being tougher in the final sector.  One important thing to note was that crashing in the infield, sent your car to the outside of the track where it was safer and easier for the marshals to reset you.  Which meant you would be heading back into the infield again instead of up and over the bridge.  

   

After his blistering performance last time out, the clear favourite for the Mod victory had to be Terry but in one of the most baffling decisions ever he chose to rebuild his car and threw away the armature he raced last time out.  I’m sure the rebuild will come good in time but he was definitely suffering pace issues as Oliver eclipsed Terry’s heat runs by 1 or 2 laps per heat.  Oliver too had seemed down on pace in practice but utilising some of that precision driving we’ve become so familiar to from both Oliver and Ryan ensured he extracted the maximum in all 4 runs. 

   


At the half way stage it was Oliver 3 laps clear from Terry, myself, Mike McCann and Matthew.  Matthew had a stripped gear set on one of his first runs so was clawing back pace.  Tracy, Pete and James were all on 35 laps which was exciting to see.  

   

In Tuners Andy was well clear of Alex, John, Kevin and Chas.  


Matthew’s new gears really suited his car and proved to be the only other driver capable of matching Oliver’s lap counts as he eased to second overall.  I remained 3rd while Tracy pipped Terry for pole in the B final. 


In Tuners Andy clinched pole but John eased past Alex for p2.  

   

[Gareth]

Tuners B Final

It was a heads up duel for the last A final place between Kevin (blue) and Chas (red).  I was rooting for both drivers as Kevin was running my Tuners build and Chas was rocking my BMW bodyshell!  

   

We’d noticed during the heats that Kevin was taking it super slow on the first lap of the race before dropping the hammer and letting the Bulldog fly.  It was no different here as Chas rocketed into the lead with Kevin cautiously circulating behind.  But that all changed on lap 2 when Kevin opened the taps, took 1.1 seconds out of his rival and the lead of the race.  Agonisingly Chas then crashed on the next two laps to leave himself miles behind and needing a Kevin car failure to win.  A couple more crashes left him even further back and a late crash from Kevin did nothing to change the scores as Kevin romped to a 3 lap lead at the flag.  

   

Also, massive thank you to Kevin for the beers.  I’ve rebuilt his F1 car (video is here) and Kevin kindly gave me a couple of beers to say thank you.  I managed to drop one twice in the space of a minute so I’ll be opening it in a bunker! 

[Gareth]

Tuners A Final

   

Andy (white) was on pole for this one with John (yellow), Alex (blue) and Kevin stepping up into red.  Curious that 1 and 2 had both picked the outer lanes.  What did they know that the rest of us didn’t?  

It was John who led the opening two laps but a crash on lap 3 saw him tumble to the back as Andy swept into the lead.  Alex was in 3rd but a crash on lap 4 left him unable to capitalise on his dads mistake.  That promoted Kevin to p2 and he was lapping the fastest of the 4 but then an absolute disaster happened.  Kevin crashed in the infield which sent his car into the barriers.  James put his car back on, Kevin ripped under the bridge and crashed in the infield.  James put his car back on…..Kevin crashed in the same place until on the 4th time, James put his car back on and sent him over the bridge so that Kevin could complete the lap….and then crash in the infield again.  This calamity lasted a quarter of the race of ruined Kevin’s chances even with all the promise he initially showed.

   

That was pretty much the end of the action as Andy romped to the win, eventually blitzing the fastest lap as well with John and Alex coming home in 2nd and 3rd.

   

John didn’t race in January so he is only an entire win (160 points) behind Andy in the championship meaning Andy just has to race in October to clinch the title. 

   

[Gareth]

Mod D Final 

   

James (red) was on pole for this one with his Viper taking on Jerome’s Bulldog (blue) and Stephen’s Viper in white.  

It was all one way traffic for the first minute as James lit up the timing screenings with Jerome in 2nd and Stephen in 3rd after a crash on lap 3.  Then James crashed on lap 10 and again on lap 13 when he lost a huge 12 seconds.  And with that Jerome was through into the lead and he went on for the win.  James had another lengthy off for the end of the race and Stephen snuck through for p2. 

   

[Gareth]

Mod C Final 

   

Mike (white) was on pole for this one with Pete (blue), Rob (yellow) and Jerome stepping up into red.  Weird that red was so unpopular!  Mike had had a nightmare in his final heat with stripped gears so had plonked another car on for the finals.  


Mike immediately put his car on the floor on lap 1 which left Jerome in the lead and Pete in 2nd.  Rob then crashed on lap 2 which left him stranded at the back.  Pete’s Bulldog had looked off pace all night and Jerome was easing away by around 0.5 seconds per lap.  Huge for a lap of this length.  

   

But all eyes were on Mike whose car was absolutely lighting up the timing tower with some astonishing laptimes. Five 5.2 second lap times in a row were then eclipsed by a pair of 4.9 second laps and 4 consecutive 5.0 laps. What was this monster that Mike had unleashed!  Had he forgotten to put Pro4 magnets in it!  

Even with a big crash on lap 16 that nearly chinned Kevin, no one had an answer for Mike’s pace as he rinsed the field and took the win.  Jerome in 2nd, Pete 3rd and Rob in p4.

[Gareth]

Mod B Final

   

Mike’s rocketship was reclaimed by Tracy (white) for the B Final as she took on Terry (red), Ollie (yellow) and Mike himself who would be going from blue.  Blue!  As the step up lane.  Nuts.

So would Tracy be able to replicate the insane pace of Mike in the C Final or would we see someone else win?  Well it was on way traffic from lights to flag as Mike blasted his way to the win. Yes he was a full half second per lap slower than his C Final for the whole race but he kept it on and delivered the goods so kudos to him.  

Terry held p2 for the early running but a crash on lap 6 handed p2 to Tracy who kept it for the rest of the race. We saw a flash of pace from Tracy on lap 11 with a 5.0 but inconsistency and crashes left her doomed to 2nd.  

Terry was gutted to come home in 3rd in the B with that huge own goal  while Ollie trailed home in 4th after a very erratic race.  

   

[Gareth]

Mod A Final

   

Oliver (blue) would be going from pole with Matthew (yellow), Gareth (red) and Mike in (white).  Matthew ripped into an early lead with me closely shadowing him.  Mike immediately flew off the track in the first corner while Oliver elected to drive his own race rather than risk it all running the nosebleed pace at the front.   And that pace was super quick as Matthew and I went down to the 5.2s before I flew off the track and onto the floor on lap 5.  Matthew hit a 4.9 of his own the following lap before also crashing and Oliver was into the lead.  I had a second crash on lap 8 but was swiftly marshalled.  The damage was done through from the first incident.  

   

Oliver was cruising at the front with a very consistent set of laps while behind him Matthew was pushing hard but a lengthy off on lap 12 saw him lose 2 laps to the leader and that was the end of his challenge.  

   

Meanwhile at the back, Mike couldn’t make white work for him like it had in the C Final as he struggled to keep it on the road which allowed me to claw back p3.  

   

So Oliver cruised to an emphatic win, demonstrating why sometimes you should let the race come to you rather than trying to grab it.  A brilliant drive as he further increases his lead in the club championship.  

   

No Juniors this time so the winners were just Oliver and Andy.  Congrats to both, thanks to everyone who set up, race controlled and put it all away.  Nascar next time!